Mint the Coin

You and I, we try to keep ourselves on the up and up. No way would 999 out of a thousand of us ever go make a debt that we didn’t have every intention of paying. We rightly consider the kind of a person who WOULD do such a thing to be the lowest form of scum.

Well, America, meet the lowest form of scum. They are known as the Rushpubliscum Caucus in Congress. In order to try to drive a stake through the heart of Social Security and Medicare, they are ready and willing to walk away from debts that THEY ran up by approving budgets and stopgap measures. The President didn’t make these debts. Constitutionally, the President CANNOT make these debts. This is all Congress. And mostly the “party of personal responsibility.” Yeah, I know what you’;re saying. The Joe Walsh/Newt Gingrich flavor of “personal responsibility” that allows one to simply refuse to feed one’s kids, or pay the electric bill for one’s cancer-stricken wife. So maybe it isn’t all THAT surprising after all.

Actually, it isn’t all that surprising. 150 years ago, people saw this one coming. There was a great fear that once the defeated Confederates were allowed to start electing their own Congressional representatives again that they might pull something like this. And as a result, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified and became the law of the land. Let’s look at what the 14th Amendment says.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

That’s it. End of story. The DEBT cannot be screwed with. Congress can’t do this. If the platinum coin is minted, this isn’t the President allocating anything. This is for no purpose other than to cover debts ALREADY made-by CONGRESS. These “conservative” types love to walk away from their debts, as countless creditors, children, and destitute and ill family members will testify to. But this is one debt that the Constitution BINDS us to. No walking away from it.

If they do this, they should put the coin on display at some venue and charge admission. I would pay real money to see a trillion dollar coin. It really won’t be good for much else, except to piss a lot of billionaires off. That alone makes it a good idea.